Garage Door Was Open at Smart House

Fox News ^ | today | AP

[Rodney King]

SALT LAKE CITY

[Carolina]

Did you happen to pick up on the detail that Marc Klaas was flown into SLC by FOX news.

Most people assumed that he was called in to be part of the investigation. Then he shows up on FOX and whines about the uncle and casts a cloud of suspicion over which was totally irresponsible.

[mountaineer]

Mormon families are supposed to have family prayer every day, either in the morning, or before bedtime

I realize that, and my comment was not intended to criticize your religion. I was just wondering why, if it's not news or not significant to the event, why mention it?

[Rodney King]

I agree, and I don't see whats so unbelievable or unlikely about this. I have left my garage door open for more than a couple of hours. Once it was open the entire night! Good thing it's not on the front of the house.

Not a single person found it unbelieveable that the garage door was left open. Just that when you add it all up it is all very unlikely.

[per loin]

This is also newsworthy. Who would be late for something like that? Perhaps there was a big fight at home. If not, I'll bet that Elizabeth was pissed when they got home, or her parents were pissed is she was the reason they were late.

It's time for the Smart family to come clean with the facts of the case. They have played on the public goodwill for massive amounts of aid. The search, organized to help them, would have cost several million dollars a day, had the searchers been paid a decent wage for working on the Smart family's behalf.

[lady lawyer]

Mark Klaas is working through his own grief. He doesn't seem to mind being on TV though. But the Smart family is not obligated to do everything that Mark Klaas wants. They are probably following the instructions of the police. I suspect the police view Mark Klaas as an interloper.

[lady lawyer]

Again, it was the reporter who chose what details to report, not the Smart family. If the family was giving a chronology of what happened that night, and they had family prayer, they would have said so.

[Grig]

What is with all you people who want to believe the worst about this poor family?

I think that deamonizing the family is some people's way of fooling themselves into thinking it can't happen to them.

The JBR's parents dressed her up as a slut and taught her to strut for grown men, the Van-Damns were swingers who's 'alternative' lifestyle opened the door to their child's abductor. We hear about their kids missing and don't don't feel to threatened because they are not like us.

They don't want to think that a strong, healthy, traditional family would have this horror happen to them, so they look for the slightest sign of something odd to exagerate and deamonize them with. Then they can go on thinking they are safe.

[mountaineer]

I agree. Perhaps Mark Klaas could be of some help in these cases, providing the family and/or the police have requested it.

[twigs]

What doesn't fit? This man seems perfectly normal to me. One profiler I watched on Fox said that the most important interview was the initial one. If they later began to change stories, then that would be a red flag. Elizabeth's father told all this in his initial interview and has not changed his story. The press is only learning of it. While I may have some concerns about the uncle, I also can see scenerios where his actions and statements are completely above board as well. I just do not have enough information to judge. Overall, I think that this is a very close extended family who are working together to get Elizabeth home. I don't see anything particularly strange about them. If something should ever happen to my child (God forbid) and I have to appear on TV, I can only imagine how my character will appear to my fellow Freepers!

[xJones]

What is with all you people who want to believe the worst about this poor family?

Good question. The family has been raked over the coals here and I wonder how the questioners would behave, if placed in the same horrible position? (For the benefit of the really stupid, that's not a threat at all, just a question.)

[chaosagent]

It was probably mentioned because it was part of the time line they gave police. The police would have wanted to know step by step what they did after they got home.

[Rodney King]

They don't want to think that a strong, healthy, traditional family would have this horror happen to them, so they look for the slightest sign of something odd to exagerate and deamonize them with. Then they can go on thinking they are safe.

The other alternative is that here on FR we use the same techniques for trying to get to the truth in these matters that we do on all other matters. And, that we believe that one of the Ramsey's family did it (which I think is obvious). And, we think that the VD's horror would not have happened had they not had wild orgies in their house, and not broadcast their sexuality such that a perverted neighbor would have become obsessed with them.

[Boatlawyer]

What is with all you people who want to believe the worst about this poor family?

Amen, LL and pass the ammunition.

I have followed the threads on this for nearly two weeks and have been struck by the unceasing cynicism and malice of many freepers. It seems to be the current zeitgest of this forum that well-reasoned opinions have given way to knee-jerk mean-spirited opinions disguised as "hard-nosed" analysis.

true conservatives should be aware that lazy thinking and contrarian opinions are no substitute for fair, reasoned analyses.

[Myrnick]

When I'm out abducting 14-year-olds I usually go with a Deerstalker.

Personally, this is too weird. How many 'intruders' hide in a house for a few hours before stealing/killing/kidnapping? Something's past its 'sell before' date in Copenhagen.

[Boxsford]

I think true to freeper form, people here don't just buy what a person says no matter what side of the story they are on. I don't think its meant to be 'mean-spirited'. At least not all of them that question this dad and family. You seem quite quick to defend a person/a family you know nothing about. It certainly isn't out of the realm of possibilities that someone in the family is involved.

[Labyrinthos]

Here's my problem: How does a stranger -- that is, someone who has never been inside the house before -- find his way to the girl's room through a million dollar labyrinth in the darkness of the night and then escape with the girl undetected? That alone should narrow the prime suspects down to a family member, family friend, or a person who has performed work in the house such as a painter, electrician, etc.

Another possibility is that the girl has staged her own abduction, when in fact she's run off with a boyfriend or perhaps someone she met on the Internet.

My final theory for the day is that maybe she's become the fifth wife of some polygamist living somewhere near the Utah/Arizona border.

[Rodney King]

My final theory for the day is that maybe she's become the fifth wife of some polygamist living somewhere near the Utah/Arizona border.

You're going to take some heat for that one.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Nothing in this article suggests that the Smarts just now remembered about the garage door. Most likely, this is something the police have been aware of since the beginning. As is standard practice in police investigations, most details about evidence have been withheld from the public (if you've watched any of the press conferences given by the police on TV, you'll remember that they answer most questions about evidence with "I'm not going to comment on the evidence"). Apparently, for some reason, investigators felt it was no longer necessary to keep this piece of information confidential, or even that it might be particularly beneficial to release this information now.

[twigs]

The family saw her get her awards. They are obviously supportive of her harp performances. She wouldn't get excited because they had to miss one.

As someone who is continually late for just about everything, I do not necessarily see that a family fight has to be immediately suspected as a concern in this close family. But I do see this as unusual in a family whose members are responsible. If Elizabeth was scheduled to play the harp, I find it very unusual that she was late for her performance. Even I am not late if I have a performance that I have committed to. While it may mean nothing, I think it bears investigation and I hope the SLC police have looked into it.

[lady lawyer]

Re the uncle, Tom Smart, on whom attention has recently been focused:

My guess is that Tom has been by his brother's side from the beginning is because he is a photographer for the Deseret News. Thus, he is more familiar with and less intimidated by the media.

Uncle Tom lives 45 minutes away in Park City. He was at home asleep when Elizabeth's father called him, and he immediately traveled down to Salt Lake to be with the family. He had been at home in Park City since he finished photographing a Utah Starzz game, and took the 45 minute drive back to Park City. All of this is easily verifiable.

Trying to pin this on him is just ridiculous.

I saw Tom's interview on CNN, that has raised so many negative comments from posters. It looked to me exactly like Tom, and all the family members, have been advised by the police to try to establish a rapport with the kidnapper, in an attempt to soften his heart. They are doing what they are told, and it sounds clumsy and unnatural.

He also made some remarks on CNN about this being a "beautiful story," which sounded unusual, and a lot of people have hopped on that. But, just before that, he had been talking about the tremendous outpouring of love and support that the family had experienced, and about the fact that the family had received spiritual comfort.

These are people who believe strongly in the power of prayer. They know that tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of faithful people, of many religions, have been praying for Elizabeth and for the family. I think Tom was trying, clumsily, to say that the impact of those prayers had been felt. He was guilty only of being inarticulate about something powerful and personal.